Walk through Wonderland
by Black.Rose.Authoress
Summary: England enjoyed walking through winter wonderlands. Usually. Except when he was stuck in one because the American git decided to be an even bigger git than usual... And now he was wet and cold. What a lovely Christmas...


A/N: Early Christmas story! In honour of the fact that today (yesterday, now) was our first day of actual snow. It was super super pretty and made me want to post this, even though we still have quite a while til Christmas. ;)

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**Walk through Wonderland**

The scene was one that may as well have been ripped straight from a picture postcard. A real-life winter wonderland, complete with untouched snow as far as the eye could see, tree branches dipping slightly under their heavy loads, and a sky that was so blue that it hurt your eyes when you looked directly at it. There was even a red cardinal sitting on a nearby branch, as if it knewthat it had to be there for ambience's sake.

It was beautiful. Incredible. An artistic masterpiece...

"I can't believe this."

"Come on, England. I said I was sorry."

"I can't believe that you were that _idiotic_."

Which he was cursing out with every step that he took. Winter wonderlands were all well and good when you were viewing them on the telly or looking at a lovely painting of the scene. They weren't quite so amazing when your shoes kept sinking into the snow and everything below the knees of your trousers was soaking wet. And it didn't make anything better when you were trapped in one while wearing an insubstantial, flimsy dinner suit that was doing absolutely nothing to keep out the chill.

And it was all the American git's fault.

"_England_~" Who was now _whining _at him. "I didn't mean to. I mean, the GPS told me to turn there..."

England had to spin around at this, mentally cursing at himself as he did so. He had promised himself that he wasn't going to encourage the git by acknowledging his existence. But that remark had just been too much. "You didn't _mean _to? You idiot! There wasn't even a _road _there! And you just turned off onto it like it was a bloody highway!"

America was pouting now, arms crossed over his chest as his gaze flickered back toward where they'd left the car almost a half hour ago. "The GPS told me to turn there, though."

"You don't just listen to an inanimate piece of plastic when it tells you to turn onto a—a—a cow path!" The cardinal had flown off in a flash of bright red by this point, frightened by the enraged shrieks coming from the furious nation. "And then you had to go and tear the bloody car _apart_!"

Out of all of the times for this to happen, it had to be today. Christmas.

And it wasn't even a normal Christmas where the only thing that he had to do was go home, eat dinner, be harassed by a few nations (like America) bringing him completely useless presents (like a $50 McDonald's gift card), kick France out of his bedroom, and then go to bed. No, this had to be the year that America was hosting the nation's annual Christmas party. Which England had helped with planning...

Not because he wanted to help the other nation or anything—and definitely not because it gave them a chance to spend more time together. No, he'd only helped because he knew that if he didn't, the whole night would end in complete disaster.

Well, it would end in disaster anyway. But that was just because you couldn't get the nations together for more than five seconds without someone getting into a fist fight. And then the fight would expand. Prussia would make the situation worse by bothering Austria, which would end up annoying Hungary, who would beat him with her frying pan. France would proceed to grope any nation within arm's length. Germany would attempt and fail to restore order. Then Switzerland would start shooting...

Now that England thought about it, he was starting to feel rather grateful to the git pouting beside him. At least now he had a _reason _to avoid the disaster-in-progress.

Although it would be nicer if he were avoiding the party from somewhere dry and warm.

"I didn't mean to tear the car apart. I was just trying to get it out of the ditch." And America was still whining, although now he sounded a little less put-upon, and more like he was actually upset.

Which surprised England a little bit. Enough that he looked up at his companion with a rather startled expression—even more surprised when he noticed that America was now worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. And he looked... Well. Guilty, actually.

"I just...Well, I know that you like the whole white Christmas thing... So I thought you'd like to see..." And now he paused before violently thrusting his hands into his jean pockets, turning his head away as if determined not to finish that thought.

England just blinked. Wait, so that was why they were out here? He'd just thought it was just because America wanted to show off his pretty Christmas scenery—as if it could hold a candle to Britain.

...Well, it wasn't _England's _fault that he had thought that! What else was he supposed to think when the git suddenly dragged him out of the house two hours before the others arrived? Especially when he completely ignored England's questions of where they were going and would only reply with 'it's going to be totally amazing'.

At least it had been beautiful. The two nations had driven around for almost an entire hour, looking at everything from snow-laden trees to houses decorated with lights; they'd even stopped to look at a frozen waterfall for quite a long while...

Before England had looked down at his watch and realized that they needed to head back _now _if they wanted to arrive before America's other guests. America had immediately assured him that they'd get back in plenty of time, though. Since he knew _exactly_ how to get back.

'Because I've got Mia!' And he had patted the demonic piece of plastic as if it were a dog of some sort that was about to perform a marvellous trick.

And England had been idiotic enough to not question him—not even to ask him why in the world he had _named _the inanimate piece of plastic. No, because he had been tired and was already beginning to mentally prepare himself for the disastrous night ahead. He'd just decided to trust America and let him deal with figuring out how to get back to his house.

...That trust had led them to this exact moment...

This exact moment, which consisted of England's right leg suddenly sinking so far into the snow that it knocked him completely off balance. He flailed for a few moments—probably doing a relatively good impression of a windmill—before falling flat onto his face.

Now, England was certain that there was a special level of hell for the souls of inanimate pieces of plastic that gave horrendous directions _in the middle of winter_. There had to be. If there wasn't, then something was seriously wrong with the world.

Because America had followed 'Mia's' instructions to the letter while England dozed off, too exhausted to notice that Mia's instructions were leading them onto a dirt road. A dirt road that grew more 'dirt' and less 'road' the farther they went down it.

He hadimmediately jerked to full wakefulness, however, when the car began to slide in the mixture of mud and slush that had accumulated on said dirt road. And had only been able to gaze at the 'winter wonderland' in horror as America lost control of the vehicle and they slid straight off the road. Right into a ditch.

That was a bad enough situation. It was a horrible situation. And it was only made worse when America decided to be a 'hero' and pull the car right out of the ditch with his freakish strength. He had failed. Instead, he had managed to tear the entire undercarriage out, leaving them in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a completely useless hunk of scrap metal.

About to be incredibly late to the party that he was _supposed _to be hosting.

"Iggy, are you okay?" And the British nation was brought out of his thoughts again, as he was suddenly aware of the feel of hands around his arms, dragging him to his feet and brushing at his coat and pants and—

"I'm fine!" And England hurriedly jumped backwards, feeling a sudden burst of heat flood his previously mostly-numb face. Damn it, he'd better _not _be blushing. No, no, he definitely wasn't. It was just the cold. He was flushing because he was cold, not because America had just been standing very close to him, hands in dangerous proximity to...

He took another hurried step backwards, opening his mouth to say...something. Probably an insult. But he was interrupted when he was suddenly engulfed by something very warm and very heavy and that smelled very much like America. Leather and a touch of cologne and hamburgers...a surprisingly pleasant smell, actually.

He had definitely not just thought that... Ugh, he'd been spending too much time around the frog.

"I think I saw a house just a little farther down this road." And those words stumbled out too quickly, an obvious (rather pathetic) attempt to distract England from the fact that the American's jacket was now draped around his shoulders, managing to block out at least some of the cold. Leaving America himself in nothing but a short-sleeved T-shirt, though.

"Am—"

"See, right up there!" And the git didn't even give him a chance to respond to the sudden gift, as he was suddenly running toward where England could see a thin plume of smoke rising above the trees...

Leaving England standing there. His soaked clothing still sticking uncomfortably to his skin; his fingers were unconsciously tugging the jacket closer in a desperate attempt to keep warm.

And a slight smile was now crossing over his lips.

"Git. You're a complete and total git."

But... He supposed that America wouldn't be America if he wasn't a git. So... He sighed as he began to follow his overly-enthusiastic companion. Groaning slightly as his feet continued sinking into the soft, wet, but still beautiful snow.

"You thought I'd like to see it, did you?"

A git who had wanted to make his Christmas special by taking him out to see this sort of beauty...

And England now glanced around again. The tree branches were still bearing their burdens, the snow was at least mostly untouched.

And he had to smile again.

"It's better than a McDonald's gift card, at least."

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A/N: I've written another Christmas story as well, but that will be posted closer to actual Christmas. It still needs to be edited and such things.

Oh, and this was entirely based off a true story. My word of advice to you. Don't follow GPS's when they tell you to go onto dirt roads, just don't do it. Especially when you're alone, in the middle of nowhere, and you don't have a cell phone... Thankfully it wasn't snowing when it happened to me. And I managed to find a house a mile up the road or so with a nice lady who helped me get a tow truck and managed to calm me down since I was bawling my eyes out. And made me dinner since I ended up stuck there for like 3 hours... Yes...

Anyway, so I want to announce something that I'm going to be doing this month, since Christmas is coming up and I want to show how much I love you guys :)

I was thinking today about how it'd be fun to do something special for Christmas... (and since this month also holds my one year anniversary of starting to write Hetalia fanfics) and I decided that it would be kind of fun to give out gift fics to you guys!

Now, as much as I'd love to write a little one-shot for all of you, that would be incredibly impossible. So instead, I'm going to turn this into a little contest.

Here's how it shall work:

From now until December 9th (the 1 year anniversary of my fanfic writing), I will be keeping track of everyone who reviews any of my stories. If you leave a review (only if it's an actual review, please) I will put your name into a drawing. On the 9th, I will pull out two names and will then contact these two people through PM. If I draw your name, then I will write a one-shot of your choice.

Rules:

1. If you review more than twice during this period (or write me an exceptionally good review), then you will receive 2 chances in the drawing. No more than that, just to make things easier on myself. (Unless the response to this is a lot greater than I'm expecting...Then I may change things numberwise...)

2. My usual reviewers (those who leave reviews all the time on my things) will automatically have 2 chances to be drawn.

3. Requests can include anything including: couples that I do or do not support, AU, genflip (that I have done or not), stories set in one of my universes, any OC's I have created, etc.

4. Requests cannot include: smut, multi-chapter fills, M-Preg.

5. And the story doesn't have to be Christmas-themed unless you want it to be.

So yes :) I know that this isn't really the best way to do this, since this leaves out anonymous reviewers and is kind of annoying for those who don't usually review, but it was the only way that I could think of that wouldn't end up giving me a massive headache.

And I will post anything that I write on this site, so everyone can read it, so even if you don't win the drawing, then you can still read whatever I write for the winners.

And stories will hopefully be done by December 25th, but I'm not going to make that definite, just because I am insanely busy for these next few weeks and I want to make sure that the stories are as well-written as possible and not rushed.


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